Chocolate Factory Glitch Sprinkles Town With Cocoa

It may be the peak of summer, but a town in Switzerland was dusted with a different kind of “snow” last week when cocoa powder suddenly started falling from the sky.

On Friday, August 14, residents in the town of Olten started noticing snow-like cocoa particles in the air, ground and on their cars, according to German media site RTL.de. It was a scene straight out of a movie.

But as it turned out, the chocolate rain wasn’t actually caused by the weather—rather, it was due to a malfunction in a local chocolate factory.

Following local reports, the Lindt & Sprungli company confirmed that there was a defect in the cooling ventilation for a line for roasted cocoa nibs in its factory in Olten. According to the Associated Press, strong winds on that day caused the powder to spread across the area in a chocolatey flurry.

The company assured the public that the cocoa particles don’t harm people or the environment. It also offered to pay for the cleaning of areas dusted with the powdery treat.

People were stunned by the idea of a chocolate snowstorm and many joked that it could have only happened in a year like 2020.

The ventilation system in the chocolate factory has been repaired, so there likely won’t be another cocoa storm anytime soon.

This isn’t the first time food has mysteriously fallen from the sky.

In 2010, hundreds of fish rained down on a small rural town in Australia, a phenomenon experts link to tornadoes that suck up water and drop fish miles away.

In 2018, the streets of a small German town were covered in chocolate after a factory storage tank leaked milk chocolate.

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